The known tofu making machines include a tofu making machine disclosed in, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 124092/1976. This tofu making machine consists of a soybean milk squeezer 5 (FIG. 8) and an agitator 96 (FIG. 7) which are provided as entirely separate parts.
Referring now to FIGS. 7 and 8 in more detail, there it will be seen that the soybean milk squeezer is provided with a raw material storage hopper 1, and a water tank 2 adjacent to the hopper 1, and a pulverizer 3, a centrifugal separator 4 and a soybean milk receiver 12 in the mentioned order below the hopper 1 and water tank 2. An opening at the lower end of the hopper 1 and an upstream end portion of the pulverizer 3, which is disposed below the hopper 1, are connected together by a communication tube 10, and the communication tube 10 and water tank 2 are communicated with each other by a water feed tube 6.
The agitator 96 consists of an agitator body 11 holding the soybean milk receiver 12, and a cover 20. The agitator body 11 is provided with a heater 84 buried in the wall thereof, while the cover 20 has agitation blades 94, 94 adapted to be driven by an agitation motor 90 and projecting downward therefrom.
In this tofu making machine, soybeans, raw materials, are inserted into the hopper 1 with water placed in the water tank 2, and a driving switch (not shown) is closed. As a result, a motor 7 is started, so that the pulverizer 3 and centrifugal separator 4 begin to be rotated at predetermined speeds. The soybeans supplied to the hopper 1 are thereby sent with the water, which is injected from the water tank 2 into the communication tube 10, into the pulverizer 3, and these materials are crushed by pulverization propellers 9 in the pulverizer 3 and sent to the centrifugal separator 4, in which the pulverized materials are separated into soybean milk and bean-curd refuse.
The soybean milk produced by and discharged from the centrifugal separator 4 flows down from a soybean milk separating chamber 40 into the soybean milk receiver 12 and is stored therein.
The soybean milk receiver 12 is then taken out from the soybean milk squeezer 5, and bittern is added to the soybean milk in this soybean milk receiver 12. The resultant soybean milk receiver 12 is transferred to the agitator 96, in which the agitation blades 94 are operated for a predetermined period of time as the soybean milk is heated by the heater 84, the soybean milk being then left as it is to complete the tofu making operation.
This tofu making machine, in which the hopper 1, pulverizer 3, centrifugal separator 4 and soybean milk receiver 12 are arranged vertically, is advantageous in that the step of supplying soybeans to the hopper 1 through the step of dropping soybean milk into the soybean milk receiver 12 can be automated.
However, this conventional tofu making machine is not capable of sufficiently simplifying the tofu making operation.
The reasons why such an inconvenience occurs reside in the following. In this conventional tofu making machine, a series of steps of crushing water-containing soybeans in the pulverizer 3, separating soybean milk from bean-curd refuse in the centrifugal separator 4, and storing the resultant soybean milk in the soybean milk receiver 12 are automated but the transferring of the soybean milk receiver 12, which was taken out from the soybean milk squeezer 5, to the agitator 96, the adding of bittern to the soybean milk, the starting and stopping of the agitator and the energizing and deenergizing of the heater 84, which constitute the greater part of a tofu making operation, have to be carried out manually.
The prior art, when considered as a whole, neither teaches nor suggests to one of ordinary skill in this art how the tofu-making operation could be automated, nor does it suggest how the tofu-making machine of the prior art could be miniaturized.